Elections officials cleaning up voter rolls

Published: Sunday, January 6, 2013 at 1:44 p.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, January 6, 2013 at 1:44 p.m.

Election officials are asking for the public's help in cleaning up Henderson County's voter rolls.

On Friday, the county Board of Elections sent out 12,000 postcards to voters it has not heard from in the past two years, mailed to their last known addresses.

“We want to be able to identify those voters who have moved or are no longer living in the county,” said Beverly Cunningham, director of the board of elections. She urged residents who receive a card to return it, regardless of whether they are the voter in question.

“All they've got to do is mark, ‘Return – voter not at this address,'” she said. “It costs them nothing. If they just throw it in the trash, we have to assume by law that the voter received that card.”

Once election officials receive the returned card, they will go through a second mailing that allows the Board of Elections to get a forwarding address for the missing voter from the U.S. Postal Service.

The state requires local election boards to go through the process of declaring voters inactive after two years of no contact, Cunningham said. She said voters become inactive for a number of reasons.

“A lot of people move to other states and never notify us that they've moved, or they move to another county,” Cunningham said. “Or the person may pass away somewhere else, and we're not notified.”

If a voter dies in Henderson County, the Board of Elections is notified by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services or the county's Register of Deeds, where death certificates are recorded.

“But if an individual moves to Arizona to live with their son and dies there, we may not be notified that they passed away,” Cunningham said.

Once a voter is declared inactive, that person still remains on the voter rolls until two federal election cycles have passed with no voting. A voter can reactivate himself by filling out a voter registration form with his current address and information, Cunningham said.

Henderson County had 79,541 voters registered as of Friday, with 32,108 registered Republicans, 19,021 Democrats and 230 Libertarians. About 28,180 county voters are unaffiliated.

<p>Election officials are asking for the public's help in cleaning up Henderson County's voter rolls.</p><p>On Friday, the county Board of Elections sent out 12,000 postcards to voters it has not heard from in the past two years, mailed to their last known addresses. </p><p>“We want to be able to identify those voters who have moved or are no longer living in the county,” said Beverly Cunningham, director of the board of elections. She urged residents who receive a card to return it, regardless of whether they are the voter in question.</p><p>“All they've got to do is mark, 'Return – voter not at this address,'” she said. “It costs them nothing. If they just throw it in the trash, we have to assume by law that the voter received that card.”</p><p>Once election officials receive the returned card, they will go through a second mailing that allows the Board of Elections to get a forwarding address for the missing voter from the U.S. Postal Service.</p><p>The state requires local election boards to go through the process of declaring voters inactive after two years of no contact, Cunningham said. She said voters become inactive for a number of reasons.</p><p>“A lot of people move to other states and never notify us that they've moved, or they move to another county,” Cunningham said. “Or the person may pass away somewhere else, and we're not notified.”</p><p>If a voter dies in Henderson County, the Board of Elections is notified by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services or the county's Register of Deeds, where death certificates are recorded.</p><p>“But if an individual moves to Arizona to live with their son and dies there, we may not be notified that they passed away,” Cunningham said. </p><p>Once a voter is declared inactive, that person still remains on the voter rolls until two federal election cycles have passed with no voting. A voter can reactivate himself by filling out a voter registration form with his current address and information, Cunningham said.</p><p>Henderson County had 79,541 voters registered as of Friday, with 32,108 registered Republicans, 19,021 Democrats and 230 Libertarians. About 28,180 county voters are unaffiliated.</p><p>Reach Axtell at 828-694-7860 or than.axtell@blueridgenow.com.</p>